LANDSCAPE DESIGN STUDENTS LEARN BY DOING
San Dieguito Academy class projects enhance campus as they educate
At San Dieguito Academy High School, students in the architectural design and landscaping class have taken on real-world projects to establish a sense of belonging and ownership on their campus. No one knows their campus better than they do, and they have designed public spaces that best reflect their needs.
The students have developed a 1:1 system of trash and recycling cans for the school and have designed and shaped the school garden, a project that groups of students have been working on since 2017, adding on bit by bit.
“It’s an awesome way for kids to think about public space,” said architectural design and landscape teacher Martin Chaker. “How many
kids this age get to design a public space and implement it?”
Chaker’s class is part of the career technical education pathway at San Dieguito, designed to ensure
students are college and career ready when they graduate from high school. SDA offers nine pathways that build professional skills through project-based learning aligned with industry standards and core content.
On Feb. 1, Encinitas Deputy Mayor Joy Lyndes visited San Dieguito to learn more about what goes on in Chaker’s class and how they are leaving their imprint on their campus.
As a landscape architect, Lyndes brings a unique perspective to City Hall, promoting ecological restoration, parks and trails planning and green infrastructure like increasing the tree canopy and native plantings in Encinitas.
“Landscape architecture is the link between healthy environments and healthy communities,” Lyndes told the students. “It’s so much more than just building spaces, it’s building communities.”
Over a year ago, Chaker’s students began tackling the problem of recycling on campus — no one was convinced that the school was actually recycling and there wasn’t much awareness of how or where students could recycle.
The main problem was that